Tuesday, August 5, 2008

A quickie

Hockey Canada has posted the results of the latest scrimmage from the men's under 18 training camp. The game was tied 2:2. Screaming Eagles netminder Olivier Roy (team White) made a boo boo that allowed for the first goal of the game and Maxime Clermont (Gatineau) allowed both goals against team Red, one of which was scored by Matt Brown (Moncton).

Nathan over at the Asylum had a lot of Q links that need following up on, so I suggest you just go check out his mad house.

One thing I must link to however is a hockey news article about Maxime Sauve (Val d'Or). Maxime is endowed with one of my highest honours by being dubbed 'les Sourcils' but he is also a source of frustration for me, and not only because of our past...for I am sure that as a member of an opposing team, he will continue to frustrate me for years to come. For you see, my team could have had 'les Sourcils' were it not for a desperate grab to get 'the hometown hero' for all of 4 months. We gave in and partook in a three way, and like all three ways, we came out of it feeling a bit huseliused.

For those who do not know (everybody who follows the Q knows...and they point and laugh), during the Christmas trade period the Mooseheads traded our MIA 2007 first round draft pick David Gilbert (age 16) and a couple of future draft picks to Quebec for Maxime Sauve (age 17) . Then we turned around and traded Maxime Sauve and a couple more futures (including first rounders) to Val D'Or for Brad Marchand (age 19).

The logic behind this fuck-fest was that Brad Marchand is a 'proven winner'. He won a President's cup in his rookie season with Moncton, he got to the QMJHL finals with Val D'Or, and he was a member of 2 gold medal winning Canadian IIHF under 20 teams. Also, being a hometown boy, he would put butts in the seats...and put butts in the seats he did.

However, it turns out that Brad (26GP, 10G, 19A = 1.115 PPG ) was barely more productive in the second half of the season than Maxime Sauve (32GP, 14G, 19A = 1.031 PPG) who was playing on a far weaker team. It was excessively frustrating to watch him play goal-less game after goal-less game. He was all moves, no finish; all dazzle, no razzle; all fuckidy-fuck, no orgasm. Furthermore, Brad's tenure with the Mooseheads was frought with the rumor that he was disruptive, had an attitude problem, and induced a schism in the locker room.

We (sadly) will never know what takes place in hockey locker rooms (naked towel fights?). What we do know is that the Mooseheads played like poo for most of their second half and ultimately crashed and burned in the playoff semi-finals, getting swept by the Gatineau Olympiques following two heartbreaking OT losses at home and two complete ass whoopins on the road...and in his very last ever game as a QMJHL player Marchand was benched.

Only time will tell how these boys compare, but since both Sauve and Marchand will be tested at the same Big Club - the Boston Bruins, it will make for about as fair a comparison as one could make. Their fate is in the hands of Chiarelli. But what I am really pissed off about is the eyebrows.